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The Daily Drink: Grilled Peppers

"Grilling vegetables ratchets up their intensity in almost every sense. The aroma goes from mild and sweet to charred and ashen. The sound of eating them goes from crisp-crunch to al dente. As for the flavor? The taste of the grill still comes through even if you peel away the skin that had been exposed to the open flame. Consider that lingering smokiness when it comes time to make your beverage pairing. Much depends, of course, on how you decide to prepare the vegetables, but the smokiness will be a common denominator, no matter what.

So are you someone who likes to stoke the embers, or someone who like to douse them? If the former, go for something with a little bit of heat, like a Bloody Mary or a ginger-infused cool tea. If the latter, I like a hard cider – Woodchuck (made in Middlebury, Vermont) is a favorite – as a contrast to the smokiness to cool things off."